The Roar and the Silence: A History of Virginia City and the Comstock Lode

3: The First Boom: Building the Mines

3: THE fiRST 800M Building the Mines Storey County is almost entirely destitute oftimbn: ... It is equally destitute of agricultural lands, as well as grass and water. -Henry DeGroot, from Kelly, First Directory of the Nevada 1erritory Unfortunately, the Comstock, with a local government, international recognition , and community infrastructure, quickly encountered mining difficulties that proved even more of a challenge. Nature provided a wealth ofgold and silver but little else. The place was generous on the one hand, but parsimonious on the other. Seemingly insurmountable problems faced those who would unlock the treasure chest. Subsequently, much of the early history of Comstock mining involved coming to technological grips with the situation. Indeed, the early 1860s saw several obstacles arise, each with the potential for ending prosperity. Miners on the Comstock almost immediately experienced problems involving milling. While the first participants in the strike easily scooped are from the rich surface outcroppings, their successors needed a cheap, effective means to unlock the silver and gold from a tightly bound quartz matrix. Even before the 1859 strike, there were attempts at milling, but retrieval of minerals combined with other rock is costly and timeconsuming at best, and the are must be valuable enough to justity the effort . That single fact perpetuated placer mining in the district during the 1850S for as long as it was possible to mine free gold and avoid the more obstinate quartz ore. Several factors created the need for milling. First, mining had depleted the easily processed gold-bearing sands. In addition, the 1859 ore strikes of gold ore ensured that mills would soon follow. The discovery of plentiful silver, chemically bonded to other materials, however , meant that milling would need to assume new forms. After the strikes, some mine owners shipped ore to San Francisco for milling, and in some cases to England. Clearly this was a costly, inefficient method, impractical as a permanent solution. At the same time, entrepreneurs established local mills to handle the tons of material. Since the types ofvaluable minerals and the extent and nature ofchemical bonding can all be different from district to district, nineteenth-century millers usually tailor-made their process for each location. Often lacking a profound understanding of the principles ofchemistry, they usually relied on tradition, intuition, and trial and error to arrive at the best means of retrieving valuable minerals. Milling begins with the crushing of ore into small bits; the next step typically employs water, heat, or chemicals to separate the mineral from the rock. The earliest and simplest method of milling employed on the Comstock involved the Mexican arrastra. In 1859, John P. Winters, Jr., and John "Kentuck" Osborn obtained partial rights to the original claim of O'Riley, McLaughlin, Comstock, and Penrod on condition that the new partners build two of these mills. An arrastra consisted of a circular bed of flat stones, upon which the miller placed the ore. An animal tied to a central pivot dragged a rock over the material until it was pulverized. The addition of water, salt, and copper sulfates with the heat of the sun turned the crushed ore into a thick paste. The miller then introduced mercury, which combined with the silver and gold in a heavy amalgam that settled to the bottom. By removing the material on top, the miller exposed the amalgam, which he then heated to drive off the mercury. Mining first used this "patio process" in Mexico in 1540.1 The cheap and simple arrastra remained in use throughout the early history of the Comstock. These mills were small and labor-intensive, however, and they were unable to handle large amounts of ore efficiently. In addition, the long, cold Nevada winters deprived miners of the sun's natural heat throughout much of the year. The Comstock demanded alternative methods. A mill owner from California's Nevada City named Almarin B. Paul was the first to address this need on the Comstock. In March 1860, he gathered investors under the Washoe Gold and Silver Mining Company No. 1. After selecting a mill site with ample water, south ofVirginia City near Gold Canyon, he began securing contracts for working ore at $25 to $30 a ton. A condition of the agreements stated that Paul would start 46 The Roar and the Silence In 1875, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper published this image oftwo approaches to milling. In the foreground, horses tread around arrastras. In...